Excessive engine vibration & lack of power

Chindu

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I have a C200, automatic, which - together with some bad advice - has been giving me an increasing deal of trouble in the last three week. The problem, in a nutshell, is this:

The engine is vibrating excessively, particularly when moving in slow traffic (for instance, when stopped at a traffic light, in Drive mode). It feels like one of those old diesel vehicles now. More worryingly, when moving at slow speed, there is a lack of power (not enough pickup). It feels like the engine is not quite catching and you are moving along in the fourth gear or something.

A garage guy I took this to diagonised it as a gearbox problem and I ended up changing the gearbox for a refurbished one (I am cutting a long story short here - I had some bad advice on the way). If anything, the problem became only worse after the refurbished gearbox was put in this morning. I took it for a full service - air filter, fuel filter, oil change and spark plug clean - and just got the car back. The problem is still there.

Any suggestions? Have spend a lot of money on this. Is it better to get rid of the car? Or is this something that is fixable?
 
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Chindu

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Engine mounts would be my port of call...

Would that cause loss of power? It feels like the car is not happy to pull when you press the accelerator.
 

jibcl500

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Suggest you find someone with star diags and go from there.

jib
 

Frontstep

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How many cylinders is it running on ?
Compression test ? star seems to be a good call if all the basics have been looked at .
 
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Chindu

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How many cylinders is it running on ?
Compression test ? star seems to be a good call if all the basics have been looked at .

It is a 1998 CC. Haven't done compression test - no. Just spend nearly £900, so just wondering if this is worth salvaging!
 

NW_Merc

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It could be a misfire due to a number of things, you need to get the fault codes read and then it could be the plugs, plug leads, coil packs or the MAF. Has the car been serviced? Can you check if the head gasket is going or on its way out?

Don't want to worry you but just throwing out possibilities. Get the codes read first as others have suggested.
 

SteveX

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As soon as I read the topic I thought it sounded like the car was missing.

Could be something as simple as plugs or coils (unless it's an old dizzy, not familiar with the engine).

Then again it could be something worse, but always best to start with the small things.

A cylinder not firing would cause the engine to be unbalanced, lumpy, down on power and just downright miserable!

Are the plugs / leads easy enough to get to on this motor?
 

NW_Merc

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Hi Steve,

It's an M111 4 cylinder, with the plugs accessed from removing the cover panel on top of the cam cover. Pretty simple to do if you have some time and some allen keys and the right sockets.
 

jibcl500

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A failing MAF will give the symptoms of a miss fire, un plug the MAF start the engine and see if there is a noticable difference in the idle and throttle, if there is then the MAF could be ok.

jib
 

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A failing MAF will give the symptoms of a miss fire, un plug the MAF start the engine and see if there is a noticable difference in the idle and throttle, if there is then the MAF could be ok.

jib

I would go along with this too, for if the mixture is too weak, then the power will be down and very lumpy running
 
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Chindu

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It could be a misfire due to a number of things, you need to get the fault codes read and then it could be the plugs, plug leads, coil packs or the MAF. Has the car been serviced? Can you check if the head gasket is going or on its way out?

Don't want to worry you but just throwing out possibilities. Get the codes read first as others have suggested.

Yes, the car was serviced yesterday. Full service - but that doesn't include the head gasket, I think.
 
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Chindu

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As soon as I read the topic I thought it sounded like the car was missing.

Could be something as simple as plugs or coils (unless it's an old dizzy, not familiar with the engine).

Then again it could be something worse, but always best to start with the small things.

A cylinder not firing would cause the engine to be unbalanced, lumpy, down on power and just downright miserable!

Are the plugs / leads easy enough to get to on this motor?

It is missing, yes. This morning it started fine, but didn't pull well once I started to move. It was 'panting' a lot when I stopped by the side (in Drive). Switched off the engine, restarted, and it was fine. Drove a few miles and it was still fine. Haven't gone for an extended spin, but the engine vibration is definitely more.
 

SteveX

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As its only a four pot and the leads or coils are easily accessed you could pull the leads one at a time or disconnect the coil (if coil on plug) and see which one has no affect (that is if you suspect it's one common cylinder that is not firing)

Don't pull them while it's running, common sense I know but I've had a shock from a dizzy before and it wasn't much fun.

You could also pull the plugs, disconnect the fuel relay and check the arc from the plugs to see they are all sparking nicely.

When you are happy with the ignition you could check the fueling. Fuel filter, fuel relay and pump, but before all of them I would likely crack open a nut on the injector rail and check the pressure is good.

If course the alternative is to plug it in and identify the cylinder no's missing.

It could also be the MAF as suggested. Some cars miss are way down on power and generally run like a bag of bolts with a faulty maf.

You could attempt to volt check the maf, but my attempts at that have not given very conclusive results.
 

SteveX

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As its only a four pot and the leads or coils are easily accessed you could pull the leads one at a time or disconnect the coil (if coil on plug) and see which one has no affect (that is if you suspect it's one common cylinder that is not firing)

Don't pull them while it's running, common sense I know but I've had a shock from a dizzy before and it wasn't much fun.

You could also pull the plugs, disconnect the fuel relay and check the arc from the plugs to see they are all sparking nicely.

When you are happy with the ignition you could check the fueling. Fuel filter, fuel relay and pump, but before all of them I would likely crack open a nut on the injector rail and check the pressure is good.

If course the alternative is to plug it in and identify the cylinder no's missing.

It could also be the MAF as suggested. Some cars miss are way down on power and generally run like a bag of bolts with a faulty maf.

You could attempt to volt check the maf, but my attempts at that have not given very conclusive results.
 

television

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Just adding that with the MAF if they fail, then the system defaults to the lowest figure for the whole set up, and that is a lean mixture, the MAF enriches according to the tamp of both air and engine.
 


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